Internal combustion engines require repair and for major repairs it is necessary to remove the engine from the vehicle or device in which it is used. It is generally required to remove the engine when it is overhauled and for some modern automobiles, where space has become a premium under the hood, it is necessary to remove the engine for many repairs.
There are a number of devices that have been designed over the years to hold the engine after it has been removed from the vehicle. These include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,065,979 to C. W. Spencer, 1,219,460 to C. H. Impson, 1,236,246 to A. F. Amelung, 1,792,612 to J. H. Staley, and 2,311,668 to M. DeKennedy. All of these patents disclose engine stands of various designs to hold the engine while it is being worked on.
Some engine stands are even motorized to elimitate the necessity of turning the engine by hand such as U.S. Pat. No. 1,424,190 to J. W. Cole and A. E. Johnson.
More recently, and typical of the engine stands presently in use, are those described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,654,147 to F. P. Wilson et al. Unfortunately, this stand is bulky, heavy and most expensive. In addition, even though it is counterbalanced, the position of the engine and the height of the engine above the floor creates a most unstable device when the engine is in place. In addition, there is substantial strain on the parts of the engine where it is attached to the motor span as it is held in a most abnormal position for the mounts as designed.
Apparatus for tilting entire automobiles have been described as in U.S. Pat. No. 1,478,256 to J. O. Reid, and more recently in 3,674,252 to R. Crabtree, et al.
None of these devices satisfy the need of the engine repair field and none describe the invention hereinafter disclosed.
It is an object of this invention to provide an engine repair stand which will allow the engine to be held off the floor or the table on which it rests and further to allow the engine to be turned up-side-down by hand to fully expose the bottom of the engine to facilitate repair.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an engine stand which can be readily attached to the engine and removed with no special tools or special handling devices.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an engine stand that may be easily stored when removed from the engine and does not use floor space when in use.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an engine stand for repair of engines which places the center of gravity of the engine and the stand close to the floor or the worktable on which the device rests so as to limit any danger of substantial damage to the engine or to the mechanic should the engine fall to the floor or to the table on which it rests.
It is a further object of this invention to utilize the weight of the engine to provide torque to allow the engine to be easily rotated without creating any significant safety hazard to the mechanic.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an engine repair stand to provide access not only to the top and bottom of the engine but also to the side of the engine.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an engine stand which can actually be run while on the stand without creating any hazard or removing the engine from the stand.
These and other objects as will be apparent from the following disclosures are made available for the first time by the invention described herein.